As the electronic communications infrastructure improves worldwide, the distribution of digital content is being rapidly transformed, aided by efficient digital media formats, the economies of digital storage technologies, and peer-to-peer and group-oriented social networking. For example, while Internet TV and mobile TV provide new distribution capabilities for video, perhaps the most important aspect of both of these technologies is the ability to link to numerous other Internet-based services. In preferred embodiments of the present body of work, content distribution technologies are linked to advertising services to support the distribution of digital content.
Ad-based content distribution systems offer the hope that ads can fund not only the production of content, but also the services that distribute the content and the devices upon which the content is rendered. However, despite the average consumer's capacity to consume prodigious amounts of content, if ads are to fund a full distribution chain, the ads need to be efficiently delivered and well-matched to the consumer in a highly reliable and measurable way. That is, each opportunity for an ad impression should be optimized to ensure that the ad is well-matched to the current interests of the consumer and that the overhead for delivering the ad and making the match is minimized.
Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein enable the monetization of content distribution by efficiently matching user-targeted ads at the time and/or point of content consumption. Content items and advertisements can be independently super-distributed, or distributed via conventional commercial methods. Efficient mechanisms are employed to ensure that when a consumer uses content, online or offline, that this usage event is funded by advertising that is well-targeted to that consumer, and that the event optimally compensates the content provider or distributor, as well as other stakeholders who participate in adding value to the system. Preferred embodiments provide highly efficient automation, and the ability to scale for use by many content distribution services, ad services, rendering applications, and device types. In some embodiments, efficient feedback mechanisms can be used to allow for optimization of the targeting, real-time matching, and auctioning mechanisms.